Legislators have not yet settled on a Fiscal Year 2013 budget, but they are close. And by all indications, that FY 2013 budget will balance. However, FY 2014 could look quite different.
The Legislature’s tax conference committee reached agreement this week on a tax plan that lowers income tax rates, and the Kansas Legislative Research Department released a projection showing how state finances might look if the tax plan were enacted.
A new tax plan could dramatically affect the fiscal year 2014 budget, but passage of a new plan is still uncertain. So it makes sense to examine how FY 2014 finances might look if current tax law stays in place.
Even though the Legislature has not finished work on a budget for fiscal year 2013, looking ahead to FY 2014 has become quite important.
The Consensus Revenue Estimating Group met April 13 and raised the forecast for state general revenue, but some of that newfound revenue will need to be spent to cover increasing human service caseload costs.
On April 13 estimators will complete an updated consensus revenue estimate that very likely will identify more revenue for the Legislature to work with during the upcoming wrap-up session.
After House and Senate budget conference committee members agreed to a basic budget last week, most budget watchers expected the negotiated agreement to pass the Legislature before first adjournment. But no votes were taken.
A six-member conference committee has begun work to reconcile the differences in spending between a Senate-passed version of the budget and a House-passed version.
The recent recession caused Kansas to go through a very difficult budgeting period, but Kansas has emerged in a more stable budget position than many states.
The state continues to collect more revenue than expected, which gives legislators working on the state budget some room to maneuver.
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